# Dying Day 5 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *You, O Christ, are my wealth. All those things I thought I couldn't live without "dissolve" in a glance from you. They are nothing when considered in the larger light of your intimate presence. How difficult it has been to come to this moment! The moment of letting go! I, who have learned so well to hoard, grasp, clutch, and control! Now I want only to be grasped by you. All my possessions are empty when they become obstacles to my union with you. O Glance of God, prepare my heart for the Great Surrender. Enable me to surrender my ego self so that I may put on Christ. Then I will begin enjoying heaven on earth. Amen. (Abide by Macrina Wiederkehr)* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 49 #### Why Should I Fear in Times of Trouble? #### To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. *49 Hear this, all peoples!Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,2 both low and high,rich and poor together!3 My mouth shall speak wisdom;the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.4 I will incline my ear to a proverb;I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre.* *5 Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,6 those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches?7 Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life,8 for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice,9 that he should live on forever and never see the pit.* *10 For he sees that even the wise die;the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others.11 Their graves are their homes forever,[a] their dwelling places to all generations, though they called lands by their own names.12 Man in his pomp will not remain;he is like the beasts that perish.* *13 This is the path of those who have foolish confidence;yet after them people approve of their boasts.[b] Selah14 Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;death shall be their shepherd,* *and the upright shall rule over them in the morning.Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.15 But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,for he will receive me. Selah* *16 Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,when the glory of his house increases.* *17 For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him.* *18 For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed —and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—19 his soul will go to the generation of his fathers,who will never again see light.20 Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.* #### Scripture for the Day: 2 Corinthians 4:1-18 #### The Light of the Gospel *4 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God,[a] we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice[b] cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants[c] for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.* #### Treasure in Jars of Clay *7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.* *13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.* *16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self[d] is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.* #### Reading for Reflection: *I've noticed a shift over the past couple of months; a shift that has been very subtle...and very welcomed. It is a shift that I didn't fully recognize until one morning when I read these words from John 12, my scripture reading for that day. It is a shift in seasons—a shift from the first half of John 12:24 to the second half. It is the slow shift from a season of dying to a season of living; from a season of "unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies" to a season of "if it dies, it produces many seeds." Somewhere in the past few weeks and months I've shifted from mourning a loss to celebrating the "many seeds" of new life. And they are everywhere. And I am so grateful! Thanks be to God! ~Jim Branch September 2011* #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: Alas and Did My Savior Bleed *Alas and did my savior bleed* *And did my Sovereign die?* *Would He devote that sacred head* *For sinners such as I?* *Was it for sins that I have done* *He suffered on the tree?* *Amazing pity! Grace unknown!* *And love beyond degree!* *Well might the sun in darkness hide* *And shut His glory in* *When Christ, the great Redeemer died* *For man the creature's sin.* *Thus might I hide my blushing face* *While His dear cross appears,* *Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,* *And melt mine eyes to tears.* *But drops of grief can ne'er repay* *The debt of love I owe:* *Here, Lord, I give myself away* *'Tis all that I can do.* ### Closing Prayer: *Dear God,* *Please untie the knots that are in my mind my heart and my life. Remove the have nots, the can nots, and the do nots I have in my mind. Erase the will nots, may nots, the might nots that may find a home in my heart. Release me from the would nots could nots and should nots that obstruct my life. And most of all, remove from my mind my heart and my life, the am nots that I have allowed to hold me back especially the thought that I am not good enough. Amen. (Author unknown)*